Suzuka
I’ve been watching this new series “Suzuka” … a pretty standard issue high-school romance+complications thing (mostly because it’s made it to torrentbytes, so I see every release of it roll by twice on the rss reader).
It’s not bad, as far as the genre goes … rather than being total harem bs like Hina and Mahoroba and a couple others, or being the “one devoted couple” sort of thing, like KareKano and AYA, this is a healthy mix … one central “couple” … except that the title character rejects the guy from the start, and one of the other girls in the series finds someone else to be with (while not quite getting over Suzuka, which leads to complications down the line). And then, of course, the title character only wanting what she can’t have, so getting jilted by the guy she jilted, and trying to play it cool. It’s at 17 eps right now, and things have particularly gotten complicated…
Anyway, here’s what I’ve noticed: all of these high-school stories only really care about the students who are at the very top of the class, of the school, of the prefecture, whatever.
For example: KareKano is about a guy and a girl who are both at the top of their class, and compete for the best grade constantly. Maburaho is about a guy who comes across as a loser and a failure, but has a unique bloodline and incredibly powerful magic (granted, in a magic-user’s school). Ai Yori Aoshi? Girl who’s the daughter of an extremely rich family. Guy who’s the disenfranchised son of an extremely rich famiy. Guy’s also top of the class, goes to grad school (or just college, I dunno, seems like sort of both) in Enishi, and is top of the class there too. Suzuka’s title character is a champion athlete, and the male lead, while he comes off as a loser, is also a top-tier athlete.
It’s an interesting cultural observation: all of these stories end up revolving around the fates of the elite … of the “best” people in something. The main character is virtually NEVER an ordinary guy (with the exception of Love Hina, where Keitaro is just the best punching bag, apparently). All of these things, it seems to me, serve to reinforce the constant pressure to succeed — the idea that if you’re not the best at something, you’re not worthy of having the “dream relationship” or whatever.
I like Suzuka so far because it hasn’t been the sort of trouble-free romance that Kare Kano was, nor has it been quite the obsessive stalkery crap that Hina pioneered and so many other series imitated. But I get the feeling it’s going to end the way the title and the first ep setup makes us expect: he’ll end up hurting the feelings of the girl he’s with, breaking up with her, and getting Suzuka instead — where his heart really is in the first place. Which is a sort of trite, predictable thing, but what can you do?